(I Attended My First Writing Retreat; Here’s What I Learned.)

Walking has always been a tool for writers. You may already use short strolls to take a break from the desk or a longer wander to work through an intractable knot in your novel. A walk in your neighborhood may sharpen your powers of observation, while a hike away from the city could inspire new directions in your writing. Henry David Thoreau and William Wordsworth are particularly famous literary walkers. Writers whose books are about walking, such as Bruce Chatwin, Robert Macfarlane, Rebecca Solnit, and Raynor Winn, found book-length inspiration on foot.

Writing retreats are usually centered in one place. A walking writing retreat moves you and your writing ambitions or project forward, literally step by step. A self-guided walking trip, whether by yourself or with selected others, offers freedom and flexibility to choose dates that suit you and an itinerary tailored to your preferences and often budget. Add in the key elements of a DIY writing retreat, and you are off.

Recently I spent 11 days on my own walking writing retreat, following Offa’s Dyke Path which wiggles back and forth across the border between Wales and England. Days 1 and 11 were arrival or departure, I had rest days in Monmouth and Hay-on-Wye and for seven days I walked. I loved the rhythm of scanning for trail markers, opening and closing innumerable gates, eating my pack lunch with a view of deep valleys traced by hedgerows between pastures and fields, the joy of birdsong and butterflies, the horror and heartbreak of a dying lamb. Most walking days I managed at least a brief Morning Pages. On the trail I stopped to scribble thoughts or a potential paragraph into my notebook. I got a good start to a new chapter and mulled a nagging question on what the narrative arc of my book could be.

Planning the Walk

Plan the walking first. Where would you like to go, for how long and when? Alone or with others? It is possible to plan the logistics yourself, booking your own accommodation and organizing luggage transfer. Self-guided walking tour operators make this easier and are cheaper than group and guided walking trips. I booked through a Welsh company which modified their standard itinerary to add in the rest days.

The choice of where can be overwhelming. For its size, North America has few long-distance paths with accommodation at regular intervals. A search for inn-to-inn hikes in the USA provided suggestions in New Hampshire, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Arizona. There are terrific options in Vermont, Quebec, or Newfoundland. Suitable walking routes crisscross Europe and the United Kingdom. The choice can be overwhelming: Focus on a country or region that attracts you and look for paths there. Research beyond social media. Look at walking guidebooks. Most European countries have a national trail organization and official tourism websites have links. I chose Offa’s Dyke Path because I was going to be in England for other reasons, it is not over-touristed and I loved the literary linkages to passing Tintern Abbey praised in a poem by Wordsworth and spending time in Hay-on-Wye, of Hay Festival and bookshop fame.

Details matter, especially the walking distance between accommodations. Be realistic. Better to plan on less than discover that you can’t go the distance. There are a few details that I will be checking before booking future tours. It never occurred to me that there might not be desks in every room. Or that Wi-Fi was unreliable at best in a few locations. Finding food that was not highly processed and included fresh vegetables took up too much time.

Setting Goals and Expectations

Clarity of objectives and realistic goals are essential for any writing retreat, stationary or mobile. List yours. Is it writing a certain number of words a day or a deep dive into editing? Researching a new idea for a book or an article you want to explore? Now review against the walking plans.

My retreat suffered from conflicting objectives. I wanted the challenge of walking big distances over many days. I succeeded, but that satisfying tiredness meant that I was not up to writing after I reached the inn. For my next walking writing retreat, I will plan shorter walking distances and build in more rest-writing days.

Find a balance between selecting a location that appeals to you but is not so interesting that you spend more time sightseeing than working. I was very productive on my rest day in Monmouth. In Hay-on-Wye I got too distracted by all the bookshops and trying to find a real salad to get as much done as I wanted.

Getting on the Trail

I am a fan of packing light, but I negotiated the transfer of two suitcases for my retreat. I wanted to bring notebooks, my laptop, and research books. I carried more changes of clothing than I normally would. I did not want to spend time finding laundromats when I could be writing or coaxing handwashing to dry when I was staying one night. I made sure that I could get to the start location easily—adding a few hours of writing time to the retreat and setting the tone that I was here with a purpose.

If you have never done a walking tour before, do some training in walking longer distances. In the shoes or boots you plan to take. Consider staying two nights in the start location. Spend that first day getting used to navigating: learning to spot signage, read paper or online maps, understand the style of written directions or guidebooks. If it is a foreign country, get an e-sim card or pay the roaming fees to ensure that you have data on the trail. Read all the material sent to you by the tour operator and load any recommended apps on your phone in advance. Know the local emergency call number. This translates to less stress on the trail, more mental room for deep thoughts or the joy of walking.

Be prepared for different weather and trail conditions. Make sure your day pack is big enough for a raincoat and extra layers, but don’t overfill it. I use dry bags (like for a canoe or kayak trip) to compartmentalize pack contents and especially keep the precious notebooks dry. Be open to the unexpected. The terrible experience of the lamb led to a draft submission for literary magazines.

I am starting to plan my walking writing retreat for next year. It will be in the Dordogne Valley in southwestern France. I will explore a trail that meanders with the river, passing through golden limestone villages, under high cliffs, around castles, through walnut groves. There are many hotels with desks in the rooms to choose from. The food will be excellent. And I will write.

The post How (and Why) to Create Your Own Walking Writing Retreat appeared first on Writer's Digest.

You’ve probably heard this saying about the film industry, “It’s not what you know but who you know.” Similarly, in the writing universe, meetings with agents and publishers at writing conferences or book events is a great way to make contacts that lead to exciting opportunities. Developing ideas from personal experience can also be richly rewarding. But when you’re looking for new topics to explore in an article, a blog post, website content, or social media, think about the people you take for granted whose stories may entertain and inspire readers.

(8 Steps for Courting Repeat Clients as a Freelance Writer.)

Does your family doctor make humorous comments to relax patients on the exam table? Was your career path influenced by a favorite—or difficult—teacher? Maybe a distant relative surprised everyone at Christmas by announcing an arctic expedition!

Think about family members, friends, neighbors, and professionals who impact your life in meaningful ways. Can you write about them and encourage readers to appreciate the everyday unique people around us?

Growing up, our family lived in an aging but once-fashionable part of town. Across the street stood a Victorian mansion, the home of 19th-century cereal barons. As kids, my sister, brothers, and I trick-or-treated at the house every Halloween. Beyond the front door in the foyer stood a Renaissance-era knight’s armor positioned upright, creating a fearful backdrop for the stern but kind descendant of the founding family who gave pennies and apples as “treats,” claiming candy was bad for children’s teeth. My father and brother did garden work for Mrs. C. when Dad was temporarily laid off from his pipefitting job. He described the interior of the house with exotic collectables from around the world in amazing detail after making minor repairs inside. The lawn, grounds, and carriage house were kept immaculately groomed, thanks in part to my family’s help.

Many years later, as an adult teaching at the nearby university that inherited the mansion when our elderly neighbor passed away, I wrote an article titled “The House on the Hill,” which was published by our city newspaper. The article describes the house and its owner along with her housekeeper and chauffeur from a child’s perspective. My sister and I recalled exchanging greetings with Mrs. C. across the street when she sat on the porch or watched her whippet hound dash across the lawn. Although our family’s acquaintance with her was limited, we admired her beautiful home and the glamorous parties she hosted for city dignitaries and charitable causes. After publishing my book Behind the Veil in 2007, I made community presentations in Hower House, now a university-owned museum.

When my mother passed away from lung cancer, I had been her caregiver most of the previous year, and her loss hit me hard. I grieved for weeks, and then my husband and I discovered we were expecting another child. At a friend’s suggestion, I joined a community gathering of ladies called Woman-to-Woman. The organizers helped to connect younger women without mothers to older women willing to mentor them. I was matched with a lady in her 70s named Rose, and we quickly bonded. Although our personalities differed in some distinct ways (I was more reticent while she was outspoken), she had much to teach me, and I became an eager learner. Our friendship grew over several years, and she was like a grandmother to our newborn daughter and older son.

After listening to Rose’s exciting stories of growing up in New York during the 1920s and 1930s, I typed her tales about helping parents run a corner store and meeting immigrant customers from around the world along with her memories about news events of that time. The stories were mostly a page or less in length. After arranging 15 of these treasured stories, I had them bound at an office supply store and gave them to her three adult children for Christmas with a copy for Rose as well. They claimed it was their favorite gift! Payment was neither expected nor received; I rejoiced to reciprocate the precious gift of time and nurture she had given me. Not long afterward, I published an article in a family magazine titled “Mother’s Day without a Mother,” to honor her friendship and support. When she passed away a few years later, I gave a funeral eulogy at her family’s request. Rose was truly inspirational!

During this same span of years, my sister and I shared caregiving duties for our father. Becky was an ICU nurse with extensive medical experience, and I consulted her about Dad’s mental and physical symptoms. I learned a great deal about the impact of dementia on patients and their families and realized the typical person might benefit from that knowledge in case they became caregivers for someone with dementia. So Becky and I cowrote an article for a nursing publication with suggestions for communicating with people who have dementia, which was accepted and published. Although we have discussed writing about more medical topics together, so far our schedules have prevented it.

Sometimes inspiration comes from everyday people we take for granted. When my reserved middle-school-age son joined a weekly youth group, we noticed he soon felt comfortable enough to open up with the other kids and join the activities. Eventually, the group leader became a trusted friend in whom our son confided about a few middle school concerns and received helpful advice. I met with the young leader on a few occasions, and his forthright, pleasant manner inspired confidence and trust. I asked if I could write an article about his interpersonal skills for a magazine called Group dedicated to youth leadership. He agreed and humbly approved the article when I showed him. The article was published, and hopefully, readers benefit from his skills and strategies while working with that age group.

In my decades-long teaching career, I published articles on scholarly topics and also about teaching challenges. For example, several Hispanic students from area migrant families enrolled in my classical literature course. I published an article in an academic journal explaining how I taught works by Hispanic authors to help those students feel included and to broaden the literary insights of non-Hispanic students.

Another noteworthy group were the midlife and older students aged 50-plus who contributed so much to class discussions with their life experience and insights. Younger students enjoyed the older ones’ anecdotes that the teens had only read about in history books. A few older enrollees in their 70s came to class for reading pleasure rather than college credit. Admiring their life-long love of learning, I wrote an article about their unquenchable pursuit of knowledge.

I could go on with more examples, but you see what I mean. Even if you can’t think of someone to write about now, you may meet influential or inspiring individuals in the future. According to insuranceinformant.com, humans encounter a staggering number of people over a lifetime, although this varies for each of us:

“On average, we live for 71 years (based on life expectancy), and most of us remember people we meet after age 5. On average, we interact with at least 1 new person daily in cities, 365 days in a year plus leap year days is 365.24. In total, we will meet (71 – 5) x 1 x 365.24 = 27,027 people.

“The average person sees anywhere between 90,000 and 42.5 million faces in their lifetime, likely closer to 3 million. We can remember the estimated figure of 150 friendships over a lifetime (insuranceinformant.com/how-many-people-do-we-encounter-in-our-lifetime.html).”

What are you waiting for? Talk to the people you know or get out there and meet someone with a story to share! Or like Edgar Allan Poe who wrote “William Wilson,” you may see a stranger in public who leaves you reflective or awestruck enough to wax creative.

The post Writing Really Is About Who You Know appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Tarpley discusses researching the doll craze for her new book, Barbieland, the importance of finding the right editor, and more.

Name: Tarpley Hitt
Literary agent: Alice Whitwham at the Cheney Agency
Book title: Barbieland: The Unauthorized History
Publisher: One Signal/Atria, Simon & Schuster
Release date: December 2, 2025
Genre/category: Nonfiction
Elevator pitch: A history of America’s most recognizable toy since the Slinky, and the incredibly litigious corporate apparatus that made her unavoidable. It’s also meant to be a bit of a tour through the literature of dolls, as well as an exploration of the “knockoff” — the tension between Barbie’s cultural branding as the first “adult” doll and the fact that she was a near-exact copy of a campy piece of advertising merch for a conservative German tabloid.

Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

What prompted you to write this book?

I’ve always been a bit intrigued by dolls and this millennia-old impulse we have to make little replicas of ourselves—sometimes to worship, sometimes to give to children, and so often a bit of both. Several years ago, I wrote about the craftswomen who make “reborn” dolls: hyper-realistic (and very expensive) baby dolls which are so detailed that they not only look and feel like actual infants but demand certain human-like behavioral norms. (If you leave one in a hot car, for example, someone will likely call the cops.) What struck me about those dolls was the amount of emotion both the craftswomen and their customers invested in these inanimate objects; they cared for them like real children, to an extent that was both bizarre to an outsider and somewhat moving. It seemed like an exaggerated version of the kind of complex relationship children (and adults) form with any doll, and perhaps none more so than Barbie, arguably the most famous doll in the history of human civilization.

The event that precipitated this particular doll book was, of course, the movie. About a year before the movie came out, an editor I’d been in touch with for years about a different book on a different subject (horseracing; gambling) told me he wanted a history of Barbie. I’d never had a relationship with Barbies—they were banned from my house—so the craze the film was already generating took me a bit by surprise. Barbie came with so much baggage; she struck me as a bit dated, slightly embarrassing. And yet here she was, in her 70s, mobilizing several generations of doll-havers, and about to rebrand herself for the next. The thing that got me interested was this idea of a dispassionate history told by a Barbie-agnostic trying to understand the grip this one doll had on the American imagination. But what sold me was what I came to understand a few weeks later, after reading as much as I could about the toy industry—namely, the degree to which that grip had been engineered from the beginning, and the lengths, both nefarious and pretty goofy, that Barbie’s guardians had gone to maintain it.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I sold the book in early December of 2022, and started my reporting in earnest in February 2023, after the website where I worked, Gawker 2.0, was shut down. I spent most of the first year reporting, most of the second writing, and much of this past year editing and fact-checking. I would have happily kept tweaking for another year or seven, but that is unfortunately not how deadlines work, which is probably for the best. The idea changed quite a bit—partly because of the abbreviated proposal process, and partly because the information you have going into a book necessarily changes after a year of reporting.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

Everything was a learning moment, more or less. I knew very little about book publishing before this project—from the logistical process (the makings of a proposal; the differences between various imprints), to the creative process (how to structure something so large and unwieldy), to little things, like the jargon of publishing (“first pass pages” or “FPP” means the first review of the manuscript in layout, apparently). I did not know, for example, that much of an “advance” is actually not paid in advance, but in scheduled “tranches,” the majority of which come after you’ve delivered the manuscript. The fallout of not knowing this was reporting so little income during my second year that the accountant I called about filing taxes laughed into the phone. Something to plan ahead for, should there be a second book.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Many. I’m still reeling from a conversation I had about two years ago with one of Barbie’s veteran designers. She’d joined Mattel in the 1960s, stayed into the late-90s, and spent the decades since touring the broader doll collector circuit. She was both deeply knowledgeable about Mattel and very generous with that knowledge, so I was thrilled when she told me she was in the process of donating her papers to a well-known toy archive. But when I went to visit her, I learned that this process involved going through her files and burning anything marked “CONFIDENTIAL.” (On the audio recording of our chat, you can hear an unsettling yelp—my reaction in the moment). It’s not that I assumed she would hand over decades of work without some pruning. But the idea of all these internal documents literally going up in smoke reminded me just how curated the public record can be. My hope was to fill in a few of the blanks.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

A couple hours with some true 20th-century eccentrics. One of those bumper stickers that says, “Get corporations off welfare.” A reason to agree with Baudelaire, when he asked of the toy store: “Is not the whole of life to be found there in miniature, and in forms far more colourful, pristine, and polished than the real thing?”

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Find an editor you trust to be anal, vicious, and right.

The post Tarpley Hitt: On Filling In the Historical Blanks appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Lauren discusses her real-life aviation experience helping inspire her new romance, Love in Plane Sight, the power imbalance for women in the field of aviation, and more.

Name: Lauren Connolly
Literary agent: Lesley Sabga, Seymour Literary Agency
Book title: Love in Plane Sight
Publisher: Berkley, Penguin Random House
Release date: Dec 16, 2025
Genre/category: Romance
Previous titles: PS: I Hate You, Rescue Me, Read Me, Claws & Crochet, Fire Magic & Ice Cream
Elevator pitch: When entering the male-dominated world of aviation, the last thing she wants is to be turned-on in the cockpit.

Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

What prompted you to write this book?

I had been throwing around the idea of writing a romance about a pilot for a few years. My dad flies as a hobby, and he got his license the same day he met my mom. I always thought that was a romantic anecdote. Ever since I was a little kid, he’s taken me up flying with him, and when I’m brainstorming books to write I’ll often pluck a small detail from my real-life experience then build that out into a story. Plus, my dad has always been super supportive of my writing career, and I knew he’d get a kick out of helping me fact check the book.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

Love in Plane Sight is the second book in a two-book contract I have with Berkley, and I pitched the idea for the book when we met to discuss a potential deal for my first book with them, PS: I Hate You. Berkley offered on both books in spring of 2023. We sold the books as proposals—a synopsis and roughly 3 chapters—and I wrote PS: I Hate You first, then wrote Love in Plane Sight spring of 2024 and had a finished draft to send in by August. Publication date is December 16, 2025, so it was a little over two and a half years between idea and publication, which actually seems a bit fast with how slow traditional publishing often moves.

The idea itself didn’t change much with this book. I tend to be a plotter, and I had to turn a synopsis in to Berkley before I started writing. I kept pretty close to that original outline, just adding in more scenes and character building when the story needed more depth. This isn’t how it goes with every book I write, but it worked out for me in this case!

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

This is my second book releasing with a Big Five publisher, and I think the most jarring thing is having a lot of people read and love my first book with the publisher and now be expecting another book that makes them feel the same way the first did. I have over 20 self-published books, and for those I felt much less pressure. There’s a sort of freedom in self-publishing, especially when I set the expectation early on that I write wherever my mood takes me. But now on this bigger stage, it’s as though the readers’ voices are louder, and I’m trying not to let their expectations dictate how and what I write. Some of my books will be emotional roller coasters, and others will be lighthearted romps, and all of that’s OK. But I’m definitely feeling a touch more anxiety as we approach publication day!

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

While writing Love in Plane Sight I interviewed multiple female pilots, and though I knew there was a power imbalance for women in the field of aviation, it was still jarring to hear about their firsthand experiences. Yet even with the pushback they faced, they still maintained a love for flying and great pride in their accomplishments. Speaking to them was inspiring, and I sometimes forget how much it can help my process to leave my comfy writing cave and interact with the world.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I write romance novels because I love bringing two opposing characters together and forging a strong relationship between them. I hope readers who pick up my book enjoy that journey and turn the last page with a feeling of hope. I would also love if this book inspired more people to pursue their pilot’s license. My dad loves flying, and there are a lot more resources out there than people might think.

Oh, and banter! I live to make people laugh with my writing. Fingers crossed most readers find my books funny so I’m not just telling these jokes to myself.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

My advice for writers is to be open to publishing in a variety of ways. Love in Plane Sight is releasing with a Big Five publisher, and I truly enjoy working with the Berkley team, but I also have grown as an author because of the books I put out myself and with small presses. I may not have even gotten my publishing deal if I hadn’t spent so many years publishing other books and building a foundation for my career. For those writers who have endless ideas and want to write 10, 50, 100+ books in your life, don’t hold yourself back as you wait to hear from agents and editors. Write the next book and explore all the publishing methods available. Don’t be afraid to put your books out in the world!

The post Lauren Connolly: I Live To Make People Laugh With My Writing appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In Field Guide to Flash Fiction, edited by Tara L. Marsh, Robert Olen Butler states that “a short short story [is] not a prose poem because it has at its center a character who yearns.” To play on the exercise he provides in the book, let’s write about two characters in a romantic relationship who yearn for different things.

Post your response (500 words or fewer) in the comments below.

The post Yearning appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Nancy discusses turning the vampire story inside out with her debut novel, The Uninvited, the joy of incorporating her love of Paris into the novel, and more.

Name: Nancy Banks
Literary agent: Dan Lazar, Writers House
Book title: The Uninvited
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release date: December 16, 2025
Genre/category: YA/vampire
Elevator pitch: Dracula meets stabby teenage girls in Paris.

Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

What prompted you to write this book?

I was reading vampire novels, and I realized that often the only role in them for women was victim. I wondered what an inside-out vampire story would look like, if the vampire’s victims refused to accept victim status and instead wrested control back from the vampire. I was also missing Paris, where I used to live. And this image lodged in my head: a girl, covered in vampire blood, crouching in a crypt under an abandoned Paris church. I wanted to know how she got there and what she did next.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I wrote the first 44 pages in April 2010. The idea never changed, but one of my minor characters—a street artist named Noor—kept stepping forward, brandishing her spray can and demanding to be seen. When I let her take her proper place in the foreground of the story, everything clicked together.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

I didn’t realize how helpful social media would be for giving potential readers a fuller sense of the book. I put everything I loved about living in Paris into The Uninvited, and being able to show images of my favorite city on my feeds gives potential readers a glimpse into the book that they wouldn’t otherwise get.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

It was a little surprising how reliable editing is. Writing is unreliable. Yet when I edit, I’m always able to burnish the beautiful passages brighter and bring order and comprehensibility to any chaos. It’s magical.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

• Strong girls solve problems and support each other.
• Predators are a fact of life, but we can refuse them power.
• Victim is not the only role available to girls.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

I spent two years in drafting hell, and the Pomodoro Technique saved me. I would not have finished The Uninvited if I hadn’t been able to set my timer and know that after just 25 minutes of writing, I’d get five minutes of freedom from writing. That five minutes of freedom refreshed my perspective and made it possible to sit back down and write for another 25 minutes. And another, and another, until the book was done.

The post Nancy Banks: On the Reliability of Editing appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Jon-Erik discusses how the uniqueness of each of his children helped inspire his new picture book, The Language of Birds, his advice for other writers, and more.

Name: Jon-Erik Lappano     
Literary agent: Emily Van Beek / Estelle Laure,  Folio Jr.
Book title: The Language of Birds
Publisher: Random House Studio
Release date: December 16, 2025
Genre/category: Picture Book
Previous titles: Tokyo Digs a Garden, Maggie’s Treasure, Song for the Snow, Martin and the River
Elevator pitch: The Language of Birds is a story about a quiet, socially anxious girl named Mira who has always had a special connection with birds, but who finds people to be a more confusing kind of animal. When a new boy named Jad comes to school, Mira notices that he connects with trees the way she does birds, and with a little help from her feathered friends, they begin to form a friendship.

Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

What prompted you to write this book?

The seed of the idea for this book came from observing the differences in our three children, in the unique and beautiful ways that each of them interact with the world around them, with other people, and with the natural world. There are so many ways of communication that we learn growing up—not all of them human—and there are forms of connection that transcend words. Some young hearts and minds develop as quieter, or more introspective, and perhaps more open to engaging in those hidden languages in nature that many of us haven’t attuned to, focused more on aligning to social norms as we grow. With this story, I wanted to speak to those people who might see and experience the world in a different sort of way. Mira is unabashedly herself, and by embracing her different nature, by watching and listening with care, creativity and attention, she finds a meaningful connection.

Birds have also always been fascinating to me, and watching the wild birds outside our window is a favorite family pastime. Birds are such beautiful indicators of a thriving and healthy ecosystem; they are guides and helpers and sources of inspiration. One of our daughters used to coo with surprising skill to the pigeons and doves in the city parks as a baby. Another was desperate to learn the language of birds, and spent hours sitting outside under our feeders, speaking in screeches and chirps to the starlings, hoping to befriend them. She once even caught a wild bluejay in her hands that had flown into our house, which inspired one of the scenes in the book.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

Going from the initial idea to the first draft happened in one exhilarating late-night writing session. However, from that first draft to pitching took about a month, going through a few rounds of early stage editing and revising. I have my wonderful literary agents, Emily Van Beek and Estelle Laure, to thank for taking that mess of a first draft and giving feedback that helped me find the heart of the story. Once we pitched it, we were thrilled to get an offer from Random House Studio, and from there it took about two and a half years to publish, which I have found to be the usual timeline for picture books. Illustrators need to take time, too, especially the talented ones. I was absolutely thrilled when we learned that Zach Manbeck would illustrate this story. His art is absolutely luminous and just perfect for the story. 

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

The publishing process for this book was seamless and smooth—it was a joy to work with Random House Studio and to collaborate with Zach on this title. No real surprises, just a supportive, imaginative team who has been lovely to engage with, from the editorial process, to publicity, to opening friendly emails of excitement and encouragement along the way!

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I am learning more and more to trust in my voice as a writer, while embracing the feedback of early readers and editors I trust. This is my fifth published work, and by far it was the most collaborative. The initial draft wasn’t really working, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. Giving it over to my agents for feedback was a pivotal moment. Their insightful feedback helped me simplify the story while zeroing in on the relationship between Mira, Jad, and the birds, and everything just clicked into place.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I hope readers—young and old—will see themselves reflected in this story, and that they gain a reminder to embrace their differences. I also hope they let their gaze linger a little while longer on the birds outside their window, wondering what lessons they might have to teach them. 

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Here is a lesson I’m trying to share with myself these days. Persist. Be irrational in your persistence. Rejection, in its various forms, is a guaranteed companion along the writer’s journey. (A somewhat harsh companion I don’t remember inviting, by the way.) Drafts will dwindle in desktop purgatory. Manuscripts will melt into mediocrity. Ideas will hit the page and then hit a wall. But persist. Be stubborn in your persistence. Keep writing. And rewriting. And rewriting. Oh, and I guess, at some point, try to get a good night’s sleep.

The post Jon-Erik Lappano: Be Irrational in Your Persistence appeared first on Writer's Digest.

In this interview, Bryn discusses the power of a high-concept story, surprises in the writing process, avoiding AI like poison, and much more.

Name: Bryn Donovan
Literary agent: Julie Gwinn, The Seymour Agency
Book title: Her Time Traveling Duke
Publisher: Berkley
Release date: December 9, 2025
Genre/category: Romantic Comedy; Paranormal & Fantasy Romance
Previous titles: Her Knight at the Museum, Berkley; Master Lists for Writers
Elevator pitch for the book: Magic meets science and sunshine meets grumpy when a love spell whisks a Regency-era duke to modern times.

Bookshop | Amazon

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What prompted you to write this book?

Rose Novak, the heroine of this book, was the best friend of the heroine in my previous book, Her Knight at the Museum. I usually take a long time to develop characters, but Rose showed up on the page fully formed. She’s a self-taught, chaotic witch, and as I wrote the first scene with her in book one, I realized something about her that inspired the story in Her Time Traveling Duke.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

It took about a year and a half from the original idea to publication, but of course, the book was finished months in advance of the release date. I had to do a lot of research for this one: Regency-era England, art restoration, the history of astronomy, time travel theories, and another topic that would be too spoiler-y to mention. My editor and I agreed on a synopsis in advance, so the plot didn’t change much until the end.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

One thing I’ve learned over the past few years is the power of a high-concept story. In other words, you read the title and the logline, and you see the cover design, and you know what you’re getting. The publisher changed my original title to Her Time Traveling Duke, and I thought that was perfect. That title, paired with his cover illustration, conveys the “man out of time” idea so quickly.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

There is one thing in the story that could go either way, and until I got to the end of the first draft, I really didn’t know what would happen! Also at the end, something happens to a secondary character that I didn’t see coming, although in retrospect, I should have.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

There are two themes I come back to again and again. One of them is taking joy in the moment, even when things are tough. Rose grew up working class, and she has tragedy and heartbreak in her past, but she still finds the magic in life, figuratively as well as literally. The other theme is about nothing being ever truly lost.

I love writing about Chicago because so many people have false impressions of the city. It isn’t high in crime; it doesn’t even rank in the top 25 most dangerous U.S. cities. Chicago is filled with culture, it has unique traditions, and the lake and the skyscrapers are jaw-droppingly gorgeous. In Her Time Traveling Duke, you’ll visit Rose’s vibrant neighborhood of Pilsen, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Riverwalk, a Lincoln Park mansion, a basement apartment on the South Side, and a hot dog stand with famously rude employees. The city is definitely one of the main characters in the book.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Avoid so-called AI like poison. Your brain needs regular practice at putting together sentences, and even writing a boring email counts. A recent MIT study showed that regular use of large language models like ChatGPT negatively affected memory, attention span, and executive function—all things you need to write. Besides, you never want to be tempted to lie about your process. That’s never going to feel great. The way you brainstorm and work through creative roadblocks is part of what makes your writing unique, and your authorial voice is worth nurturing.

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(The Nature and Value of Loneliness for Writers.)

This playbook for my life felt both restrictive and safe. To achieve the ideals of traditional womanhood in evangelical purity culture, I twisted my unruly self into submission, making my body and voice, dreams and ambitions, smaller. This practice may not have fed my creative life, but it did teach me something about working within constraint.

And constraint, as long as there’s still room to breathe, can be exactly what a creative needs.

Take, for example, constraint’s seeming opposite: boundless freedom. I know a bit about that, too. No one’s life can be reduced down to a single narrative, after all. As an amateur writer, it was startling to discover that one of the worst things for my practice and productivity was total freedom. I think of my first summer out of graduate school, a teaching position secure for the fall, and living comfortably (though not well) off of my savings and my husband’s salary. We were renters with no children or pets. Our parents were healthy, occupied, and elsewhere. And my summer days were long stretches filled with few commitments: just me, my notebook, and a pen.

What could I create in those months filled with so much uninterrupted writing time?

As it turns out, not much. Each day, I labored over paragraphs, only to delete them. I tinkered over the structure of individual sentences. What was I writing about? I was bound to discover it in-process. This endeavor felt pure, like I was a true artist. I paused during my mornings to read novels for inspiration. I took long, mid-day runs in hopes that the muse would meet me on the trail. I recovered from those runs on the couch, television on. The day would end, and it would be time to make dinner for my husband who had been hard at work all day. I swallowed shame when I considered how little I had to show after my own day of supposed writing work.

When I began teaching in the fall, I didn’t even have a complete, revised creative piece to show for it. It seemed clear to me then: I was not a writer. I refused to fool myself. If this was how unproductive I was after such an indulgent few months (and truly—I was ashamed at the extent of my own leisure), writing was clearly not the life path for me.

And so, this not-writer threw herself full force into teaching writing. I developed creative prompts and assignments. I scaffolded activities. I mentored students individually. I was quite productive, busy all the time, and even though I would not yet be able to apply it to my own practice, I learned that students produced their strongest work while working within constraints.

Yes—seasoned teachers know this. I never told a student to just write a research paper. I gave them a thematic umbrella. A sample organizational structure. I showed them models, and then I had them really rip those models to pieces. We looked at every stage of a piece of writing. The title—how long is it? The intro—does the writer address the reader? Does the first line make someone laugh or wonder? Is the argument made right up front, or does it take a few paragraphs before it is introduced? And so on—I taught students to deconstruct. Together, we looked at transitions and observed how the writer was moving from one idea to another. And how they kept the reader’s attention and focus along the way.

And then I told my students—okay, class. For homework, go do those things! Follow the constraints you just observed. But, you know, follow them your way. Creatively.

To give my students complete and total freedom would not just have been overwhelming—it would have resulted in poor work. True creativity did not come from totally eschewing constraints, I realized. It came from deconstructing the ones that were present—and then inviting surprise and play within those lines.

Around this same time, I encountered additional constraint in my personal life, too. It wasn’t until my schedule became less free that I found room to move on the page. I gave birth to a baby, and I began incorporating short, 10-minute daily journaling into my morning routine—just to keep my own sanity. And then, I gave birth to another baby. With this additional responsibility, I felt compelled to compose full essays. Then the pandemic happened. Trapped in my home with two toddlers and unstable childcare, my increased constraints resulted in finding the space to write an entire book.

It may seem counterintuitive, but my voice didn’t emerge in the midst of total freedom. I found it as my life became more squeezed, more full of responsibility. Time is slippery, and the creative life is not subject to basic math. Anyone who has ever worked a fixed 9-5 job knows that more time does not equal more productivity.

Of course, there has to be some time. No one can create without a bit of margin. Still, writers need something to rub up against. Friction, tension. Maybe that’s a baby or five. Maybe that’s a bustling medical practice.

Maybe that’s marriage and motherhood.

Most of my writerly obsessions are about the push and pull between freedom and constraint. The constraints of traditional marriage and motherhood could work for me—if I wanted them to—as long as I had room to play. In knowing my expected script—one of helpful submission—I could learn to subvert it, both in my personal life and on the page.

Maybe marriage and motherhood wasn’t a constraint I wanted to impose upon my life. That would be okay—but, I realized as I grew older, that there was no place I could flee to where I would not have to follow some sort of script. In deconstructing my upbringing, I began to see that every societal role included some kind of script. As a teacher, for instance, I followed a script. I worked within the scope of my institution. That involved expectations and rules, hierarchy and submission. It wasn’t like girls in evangelical purity culture were the only ones expected to follow a playbook.

Wouldn’t it be lovely, though, to find a space where I would not be boxed in? At times, I fantasized about total deconstruction. What if I tore it all down? I wanted wide open spaces, fresh air, and room to breathe.

But no enclosure wouldn’t mean absolute freedom. It would simply mean being unhoused. We all know that a home is preferable to none at all—the question was simply, what kind of home did I want to live in?

This is what I learned about myself and creative constraints. It’s not my box that limits me, but the quality of the space inside it. When a place feels imbued with grace and forgiveness, rather than discipline and punishment, art can emerge. This is true no matter the limits a person finds themself up again. Limits, after all, aren’t fundamentally restrictive. Sometimes they can be the very place we go to find tension.

Check out Anna Rollins’ Famished here:

Bookshop | Amazon

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In this interview, Carissa discusses upping the stakes in her series with her new romantasy novel, Children of Fallen Gods, her hope for readers, and more.

Name: Carissa Broadbent
Literary agent: Bibi Lewis 
Book title: Children of Fallen Gods
Publisher: Bramble
Release date: December 9, 2025
Genre/category: Romantasy 
Previous titles: War of Lost Hearts series and Crowns of Nyaxia series
Elevator pitch: Tisaanah bargained away her own freedom to save those she left behind in slavery. Now, bound by her blood pact, she must fight the Orders’ war—and Max is determined to protect her at all costs.But when a betrayal tears apart Ara, Max and Tisaanah are pushed into an even bloodier conflict. All the while, darker forces loom. As Tisaanah and Max are ensnared in a web of ancient magic and twisted secrets, one question remains: what are they willing to sacrifice for victory? For power? For love?

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What prompted you to write this book?

This is the second book in the War of Lost Hearts trilogy, and I jumped into it right after I finished book one, Daughter of No Worlds, which followed a young magic wielding woman as she escapes enslavement and joins a powerful organization of magic wielders with the help of a reclusive former soldier. This is an epic fantasy trilogy, and it’s really in this book that the scale of the story increases dramatically and the stakes get much higher. So, while Daughter of No Worlds was a very easy book to write comparatively, and very low pressure because I was writing it solely for myself, this one was a lot more complicated because there was a lot that I was trying to execute with this story.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

This book was originally independently published in March of 2021, and it was one of the most challenging writing processes I’ve ever gone through—even now, eight books later! Daughter of No Worlds, the first book in the series, came out in January 2020, which meant that I was working on this sequel through the beginning of the pandemic, when I was also going through some stressful changes in my day job at the time. I began working on the book in early 2020 and was working on it right up until its release day (a luxury available to indie published authors!), so the whole process took a bit over a year. It was by far the most epic and complicated book I’d ever written, with three intersecting POVs, and I didn’t do enough pre-writing, which meant that there was a big hole in the first half of the book that I ended up completely rewriting multiple times.

It was painful! But it was also the most effective learning experience out of any of the books I’ve written. I learned so much about my craft and how I work!

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

Of all my independently published titles, this one was the greatest learning experience. In self-publishing, authors have simultaneously more and less flexibility than in traditional publishing—more in the sense that there are fewer people and scheduling considerations to take into account, and less in the sense that indie authors are limited by Amazon, etc. in rescheduling their books. Children of Fallen Gods was a perfect storm of internal and external factors that required me to shift the publishing schedule multiple times, in small increments because of the requirements for indie authors at the time to move a release without losing all preorders. It was a huge amount of pressure! Looking back, I wish I had given myself much more time to begin with to avoid getting into this situation from the start, but I feel almost every author has some sort of story like this—seems like a learning experience most of us need to go through!

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

As I referenced above, this was an extremely challenging book to write. It’s the second book in an epic fantasy trilogy, and it’s a bit of a cliche among authors at this point that book twos are uniquely painful! Of all the book I’ve written, this one went through the most extensive rewrites and had the most non-linear drafting process, because I ended up totally reworking the first half of the book. However, I have no regrets about this, as painful as it was at the time, because it taught me so much about how I work now. I now know that I need to take the time to work through gaps in the story in the pre-writing/outlining phase, and if I don’t, I can definitely get myself into some deep trouble later. This book ultimately pushed me into a radically different pre-writing process that I adopted from the third book onwards, and though of course this process evolves a bit with every book, I have largely stuck with it since. I’m grateful to this book for that reason! I learned so much about how I work.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

It meant so much to me to write this trilogy partly because writing it was my way of working out my own frustration and confusion with the world—grappling with a lot of open questions I still don’t know how to answer through these characters. Children of Fallen Gods expands the world dramatically and also gets much darker than the first book. But the relationships at its heart—the romances and beyond—are also much deeper. Even though this is a fantastical world and story, I hope that readers see themselves in the characters and that it helps them make sense of the darkness in the world as it did for me.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Don’t be afraid to learn as you execute instead of waiting to reach some intangible level of “ready” before you start. This is by far the biggest challenge I see new writers face—they never finish because they won’t let themselves really start because they feel they “aren’t ready.” Every book I’ve ever written—especially this one—has taught me that there is no level at which you “feel ready!” Every author out there, even the most successful and prolific, are constantly learning and redefining their own processes, and by far the most valuable teacher is actually being hands-on with your book.

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